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Peter Dinklage Discusses Game Of Thrones Final Season Backlash In New Interview

The actor stands by the show's final episodes and is not looking back.

By David Wolinsky on January 10, 2022 at 3:38PM PST

In a new interview, actor Peter Dinklage discussed the divisive final Game of Thrones season that wrapped the fantasy drama back in 2019. As Dinklage sums up to The Times, he doesn't believe that fans being split or upset about the last episodes affects the series' legacy.

"You try [to avoid the chatter], but that was impossible," said Dinklage."You’re reminded of it on a daily basis by the fans. They had deep knowledge, but if somebody loves something they have their version of it in their head, so we got criticism early. Then, when we were leaving, they criticized again because they didn’t want us to go. Some got angry. But if you appeal to everyone you’re doing something wrong. And we offended a lot of people."

In December, Dinklage also defended the Game of Thrones ending to The New York Times, saying, "[Some fans] wanted the pretty white people to ride off into the sunset together… By the way, it's fiction. There's dragons in it. Move on." The epic's final episodes were criticized by fans for feeling rushed, memorably culminating in an online petition for "competent writers" to remake Season 8 of Game of Thrones in a manner "that makes sense," which as of this writing has garnered 1.8 million signatures.

In another interview still, with The Independent, Dinklage struck a much different tone and instead discussed his excitement to watch House of the Dragon as a fan who doesn't know what will happen.

House of the Dragon is scheduled to premiere on HBO this year, though a specific release date hasn't been announced yet. Before this, George R.R. Martin commented on House of the Dragon, saying he saw a rough cut of the first episode and came away very impressed. "It's dark, it's powerful, it's visceral… just the way I like my epic fantasy," he said.

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He said that? Shocker.

Upvote • 3 years ago

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I didn't criticize it because I "didn't want to see you go." I criticized it because it was GARBAGE.

Upvote • 3 years ago

TheFlawedGoblin

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TheFlawedGoblin

My gripe with the last season was that the human drama should have ended before the final battle with the white walkers. I didn't think the human drama was more important than facing the white walkers as a collective. I also had no desire for "pretty white people to ride off into the sunset" at all. The last season jsut simply wasn't that good. It wasn't terrible either tho. Just an ok ending for what should have been an epic show and just a lesson to not make a show out of unfinished source material because once they no longer had books to follow, it turned into a normal tv drama real fast.

Upvote • 3 years ago

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The last season wasn't as good as the previous seasons, it was rushed and it felt like a lot was left out, but it wasn't as bad as many folks pretend it to be either. I get tired of being contrarian on this topic, but it wasn't hot garbage and the vitriol gets worse as time passes and folks remember less and less about what happened and only recall they are supposed to complain. The ranking for the seasons should look something like 9, 9, 10, 10, 9, 10, 8, 6.

More than anything, they really needed to work on Dany's turn, they kept it subtle for far too long and she should have been on the edge of batshit by the end of season 7. Instead, her turn came on suddenly for most viewers and given that she was among the show's "heroes" for most of the run, her "quick" turn as an unrepentant villain was jarring. The clues were there, but the audience wasn't watching for clues, they were watching for someone to take down Cersei. Since we didn't get that, and really, we didn't get a lot of satisfactory endings with our favorite characters, there is plenty of room for criticism, but the kneejerk responses are often vapid and meaningless, just fishing for likes.

And yes, feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but you're never going to convince me season 8 was a one or two-star season. It was middling, uninspiring, and did not rise to the level of the previous seasons, but it was not trash.

3 • 3 years ago

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@lord2fli:

When it occurred, my contention was that the last season was "fine." Everything concluded adequately. This adequateness vs. epicness is not the fault of the final season solely; it really comes down to series planning. They could have planned for seasons beyond season 8 to wrap everything up in an epic fashion or they could have pared back some of the stuff included in the first 7 seasons (do we really need the Ramsey Bolton plotline) and made the storylines they did stick to more epic. As it was, they drew a hard line on when to end the series, and wrapped up everything mostly logically for a show with magic and dragons.

This is partially George Martin's fault. He has not finished the book series! If the series was complete, the show developers could have planned better and I bet they thought the books would be finished before the TV series. Martin could be looking at it now and thinking, "I know I envisioned 7 books, but this is starting to feel like 10-12."

2 • 3 years ago

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It was Disney! They were visiting DnD during the past 2 seasons to "see the set and maybe give them a Star Wars movie" which they only appeared to do; I dont think Disney was ever committed to a Star Wars movie with DnD, ever.

Disney had Disney Plus coming out, and HBO Max is direct competition. I absolutely guarantee you that there was money thrown around under the table to not only massively BLOW IT that last season, but defame the characters so NOTHING about the show was memorable.

Make it so bad that it becomes irrelevant, and they did. It was so bad its inexplicable, and I bet that ^ is the reason.

Upvote • 3 years ago

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Edited By letsgame82

Game of Thrones started well and it was well done but the final season just made me feel like I wasted my time watching it, worst plot twists of all time and the ending made me throw up lol

2 • 3 years ago

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George R.R. Martin will say anything as long as you have a box of peanut M&Ms with you.

7 • 3 years ago

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@lfebaggins: I am starting to get that feeling

Upvote • 3 years ago

deactivated-64a3ced8b46b8

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deactivated-64a3ced8b46b8

The Dinkle!

Upvote • 3 years ago

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Edited By totallytc

Early seasons were some of the best entertainment ever put on TV, the last season however was rushed garbage.

7 • 3 years ago

Use your keyboard!

ESC

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